Merry Christmas Freedonia

Merry Christmas Freedonia is the title of an annual series of Christmas themed animations created by  ScarClaw72. They most often take place in Winterthorn, and feature the founders, himself, and many other players from the server.

History

Origin

Early into  ScarClaw72's days into the server, he was inspired by the cinematic videos on the MinecraftOnline homepage to make a trailer that would blow away them all. This would be achieved using his secret weapon, 3D animation like he had once done for the now-defunct server CraftingMadness. In a similar sense to the predecessor, he would make it as a surprise for the server. After doing research, he came across a world downloader Modifications. He began making copies of different parts of the server, notably spawn, the rules hall, and some areas from the Tour. While compiling the files into .objs however, during a conversation in-game, it was brought to his attention that world downloading was not allowed. After being prompted, he deleted all the local files he had and indefinitely put the project on ice. He was told had he gotten approval from Riot, he could continue the project. While for a bit he tried writing up the best email he could with intent to do just that, he later lost the motivation believing his ambition had gotten the better of him.

About a month later, when Scar was exploring the server in between his newly recent Exploring Freedonia series, he discovered the town of Winterthorn. He experienced a strange experience of aw and an atmosphere he felt nowhere else on the server could really capture. As time went on, he would formulate the idea to try and make a music video in this town. During the fall of 2016 though, he was going through an unbelievably emotional time period in his life, he ended up taking quite a break from the server. He did, however during that time frame, create an almost if not completely accurate replica of winterthorn using screenshots, journeymap data, and the server Map. With time running out near christmas, Scar hastily put together the first Merry Christmas Freedonia simply called Merry X-mas Freedonia.

In 2019,  Anna_28 gave Scar a proper world download of Winterthorn, removing the need for cropped shots to hide the tight borders, and offering an up-to-date testbed for new sets.

Ambition

While Scar did not build his first desktop until 2018, 2017 gave him a lot of resources unparalleled for making the sequel animation a reality. Taking the second year of digital media during his senior year of Highschool offered him about three hours a day to work on project-related things as long as it fits within class-based material. Thankfully animation was one of those things, giving him better computers and a dedicated time every day where he could work on the animation. The scale and production quality increased dramatically, as well as ambition. One Hearth's Warming Eve would not only tell a story, but start one, thus beginning the tradition of over-arching narratives for the annual series.

Five Years Later

During the five year anniversary, a miniseries was created called Evergreen that depicted events and created hype leading up to Merry Christmas Freedonia 2020. The 2020 animation is planned to act as a sendoff and a piece that brings all the animations so far to a close.

Series

The Ballad of Jessica (2016-2020)

The Ballad of Jessie tells the story of a boy named James. As a child, he falls in love with a girl named Jessica. Leading up to Christmas, he finds her trapped out in the snow with no way to get home. James manages to convince the bartender across the street to pay for a taxi to take her home. A few years later, Jessica recognizes him sitting out by the waterfront, and invites him into her restaurant for the night. The both socialize and end up falling for each other that Christmas, but end up going their separate ways in the morning. 3 Decades down the line, James works a guitar player, who sings of his stories, including the first time he met Jessica. Once eventually faced with his mortality, Jessica manages to find him after a long search and the two share a moment before he passes away. Visiting his grave every year around Christmas time, she remembers a feeling she once had and has to learn to move on. Finding friends among the founders, she is given a place at the Evergreen concert to perform for the people of Freedonia.

2016 - Merry X-mas Freedonia (Not Quite Silence)
2017 – One Hearth’s Warming Eve
2018 – When Christmas Comes To Town
2019 – Old City Bar
2020 – Evergreen Miniseries
2020 – Cool In The Cold

Sam's Story (2021 - ?)

Teased at the end of Cool In The Cold, a lonesome villager hides anyway in his house with an aura of melancholy. What does the future have in store for him?